新西兰英语 351 Commonwealth Games finished
The Commonwealth 1 Games finished last night. India will be pleased that there were no major problems from terrorism or anything else. India was second with the number of medals and this is the best result ever for India. Australia was first, well ahead of all other countries. New Zealand was only 7th but we got 6 gold medals, 22 silver and 8 bronze, a total of 36 medals. The New Zealand team was the biggest ever with 191 athletes and officials. It was very expensive for our country to send so many people.
For the host country, India, it was also very expensive as they had to build new facilities for so many sports and provide accommodation for so many athletes. Some sports officials have suggested that Commonwealth Games in future could be smaller. Perhaps teams events like hockey, rugby and netball do not need to be in the games. Smaller Commonwealth Games would make it easier for poorer countries to be the hosts. 54 countries belong to the Commonwealth, many of them third world countries in Africa and the Caribbean.
The next Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland 2 in 2014.
For more about the Commonwealth Games, listen to September 18th 2010
Questions
1. Commonwealth is a group of countries which used to belong to England but now has extended 3 to include countries like Rwanda and the Cameroons. However, Europe and the US do not belong. Do we need a Commonwealth?
2. These Games did not fill all the spectator 4 seats. Why was that? Will that mean a financial loss for India?
3. Some people argued that the money for the Games should have been used for better housing 5 for Indian people instead. What do you think? Will Indian people benefit from these Games?
- He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
- Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。
- He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
- Scotland is to the north of England.苏格兰在英格兰之北。
- an extended lunch hour 延长了的午餐时间
- France has greatly extended its influence in world affairs. 在世界事务中，法国的影响已大大地扩大了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- A spectator threw the ball back to the players.一个观众把球掷回给球员。
- He was content to stand by as an impassive spectator.他满足于站在旁边做一个冷漠的旁观者。